Corvette Club autocross - Sat, Aug 9th

I get the sneaking suspicion that I'll be the only representative from WCFofBC attending the BCCC autocross this Saturday. Colby will be packing his bags for his soon-to-begin oddessy in Saskatoon, Gary will be on the Island, Harrison is unavailable, Brian will (probably) be working...

Oh well, the autocross itself will still be fun for me, but I imagine this thread will be a lot quieter than most autocross threads after the event.

Cheese wrote: You still gotta record and post some video!

Well, that's a given!   

OMG, it's going to be a fast course tomorrow! There's basically a straight line down the back stretch the whole length of the pad leading to the stop box. I have no idea how fast I was going at the end of the "test" laps (after helping to set up the course), but heading into the stop box I had maxxed out in 2nd and was in floored in 3rd gear for quite a few seconds.

I was wondering what the hot smell was coming off my car... and it was my brakes! They were just cooking. You do not want to be standing anyway near the end of the stop box tomorrow!

Looking forward to the event, and then to the cold beer.. I mean the meeting at Red Robin.

karnak wrote: Hope you're having a great day Patrick!

Oh man, I was telling Colby at the club meeting that it was too bad you guys missed this event. Part of this course was the fastest I've ever driven at an autocross. I'll post a scan of the course later, but for me it was pedal to the metal down the whole north end of the pad into the stop box. There were supposedly staggered gates to go through, but I just picked a line that required very little turning to go through them, and this allowed me to eat up 2nd gear and carry on in 3rd until I slammed on the binders going through the timer. I estimate I was doing 110-115 KPH going into the stop box. I'm thankful the brakes/tires worked very well. Didn't lock 'em up even once in the stop box.

Lots of video to review. Not sure if I can do that tonight before I start to fade though. I'm beginning to feel the effects of the long hot day... but yes, it was a good day. (Would've been a "great day" if all my usual autocross buddies had of been out there as well.)

karnak wrote: Sad i missed it. Being a boat ride away made it difficult. looking forward to the video!

Hey, there's worse things you could've been doing than being over on the Island. I love it over there.

I'll post some stuff later. I took Ken (from BCCC) on a run. It's pretty funny... he never stops talking!

karnak wrote: how did he like the ride?

I think Ken quite enjoyed it... until we entered the stop box at 110-115 KPH. Then he quickly blurted out... "Hit the brakes man!"

I'll make sure to post that run.

I had problems with the video as the footage from the camera is perfectly fine, but somehow the YouTube re-encoding process has introduced some jerkiness.

Anyway, it's certainly viewable. This was Ken's first time through the course at speed, as he had only been through the course once before as a passenger in a car which was being driven by a someone in their first autocross run... ever, and Ken himself hadn't driven it yet. 

I had been through the course three times the night before (after set-up) and once previously that morning (I was in the first of three groups), so I knew the car would be able to stop within the stop box just fine at 110-115 KPH... but Ken didn't know that.

Watch video in 3D or 2D -  Taking Korvette Ken For a Run In The Fiero 

And here's the PAX standings. I was awfully disappointed that I couldn't break 50 seconds, as the lowest I could get was 50.066 seconds.  So close!

There are also all kinds of mistakes in the times. One of the fellas that I usually beat supposedly beat me by almost four seconds. When I looked at his runs, his second fastest run was five seconds slower than his "best" run.  There is no way he had one run that was so much faster than all the rest he had. Anyway, it's all for fun... and BCCC are working on fixing the timing issues.

karnak wrote: Nice video. Entertaining narrative.

I'm thinking of hiring Ken full-time.

karnak wrote: 53 is a decent turnout. you did well!

There were a lot of fast cars in attendance on Saturday. It's funny, but Spike Staley announced to the group of volunteers on Friday afternoon that he specifically designed a course that was not Fiero friendly.  Yes, those were his words! He made it clear (in a good natured way) that he wanted a course that was designed for high powered Corvettes. So with that in mind, I'm actually quite satisfied with how my times stacked up against the competition.

I certainly had enough kicks at the can over the weekend. I had three runs on Friday evening, nine official runs on Saturday plus two re-runs (timing errors), and then two fun runs afterwards. So I went around that course (and into the stop box) 16 times in total. I'm hoping I still have some brake pads left.